Eric's Book Corner - 3/16/2010

Students are on break and things are dreadfully boring here.  I know book reviews may not sound like fun for any readers out there, but I just need to write.  I've had a lot of time to read some good books recently so if any of these books sound interesting to you, run out and get them!

Surprised By Hope - N.T. Wright
My Rating: 4.5/5

First off, I'd like to thank Karen Park for sending me this book. I know it was hardcover and expensive and the shipping probably cost the same amount as the book, but I had a great time reading it.  Thanks for being such a great supporter and encourager!

In the Pauline theological world, there's a lot of debate over N.T. Wright's New Perspective on Paul and what it means for justification and all that.  The first books I read by Wright were about these issues so I had no idea what his books for the normal reader was like.  Wright, in Surprised by Hope, attempts to bring back the biblical meaning of "resurrection" and the hope that it brings to us as believers today.

Christians tend to think about this life, and life-after-death, but Wright calls his readers to look beyond to "life-after-life-after-death."  Everyone knows that those who are in Christ will "go to heaven" but what about the resurrection of the body?  It seems like that doctrine is always tacked on at the end and it has no significant meaning to us.  Most people when they think of heaven lack the biblical worldview of resurrection and therefore have no tools to think about what the new heavens and the new earth will look like.  Our secular worldview has conditioned us to think about clouds and golden gates.

"Life-after-life-after-death" means that we're not just sitting here on this earth as it goes to gutter waiting for Jesus to come back.  It's a realization that when Jesus does come back, the new heavens and the new earth will be the very one we're on right now! (Restored and redeemed of course).  Wright has further opinions how this has significance in our lives today in terms of world politics and economics and things but you can take that part with a grain of salt.

This book will radically change your worldview on what the resurrection and Jesus being its firstfruit means in our lives today!

Next Evangelicalism - Soong Chan Rah
My Rating: 4.5/5

Pastor Daniel recommended this book to me and man did it challenge me and change my perspectives!  Rah comes out with guns blazing against the "white cultural captivity" of the American or Western church.  He calls Christians to look for the Spirit moving in World Christianity and not designating the growing power of ethnic churches around the world and in America into side-categories.

All the arguments against white cultural captivity aside (which is quite fascinating), Rah challenged me personally as a second-generation Korean American.  Are there any other second-gen kids of immigrant families out there that wonder why they only feel comfortable with people just like us?  Rah states that we are in a state of liminality between two cultures having to constantly balance the values and beliefs of two worldviews.  However, he encourages people like us to become the bridge for multi-ethnic fellowship in America.

He also challenged me to question the cultural values that are contrary to the gospel.  He calls Christians to recover the theology of suffering in our personal lives.  Rather than getting that education, getting a nice job, settling in the suburbs and going out to our nice megachurch in the name of God, Rah challenges Christians to find honor not from moving out into the suburbs, but by moving towards the hurt, marginalized, and needy of society.  Helping out the needy on weekends is good, but it will never give us the full picture of suffering and daily life of the needy.  Rah's picture of incarnational ministry is compelling and absolutely needed in the church today.

A definite must read for my fellow second-generation Korean American friends!


Gospel-Driven Life - Michael Horton
My Rating: 3.5/5

I couldn't put this book down when I first started it, but somewhere in the middle it just took me forever to finish.  This book almost single-handedly convinced me to go to a Reformed seminary like Westminster.  And Horton's ever persistent focus upon the gospel, gospel, gospel alone really shaped my thinking for a couple months.  This book is a great example of the strengths of Reformed theology (or whatever I think I know of it).  Horton is able to draw out these metaphors and archetypes and man I don't know how to describe it but he just makes one huge compelling story and biblical narrative that continually points to Christ.

Horton's main point in this book is to reveal that a gospel-driven life is not one that is set about "doing" with programs and events, but rather hearing and receiving and being changed.  Like that one picture of the soldier kissing a random nurse on Victory Day in Times Square, Horton argues that when the gospel is presented as the good news that it is, life transformation is automatically responsive and changes the way we look at life, community, religion, etc.

If you want a taste of true Reformed perspective on Christian life, give this book a try.

Pagan Christianity - Frank Viola and George Barna
My Rating: 3.0/5

Had I not read this book with a well-informed critique by The Resurgence blog, I think I would have been majorly screwed.  This book really messed with my paradigm of how church should do church.  The main thesis of this book is that the modern institutional church is more a product of pagan influence down the centuries than of the Bible.  Viola argues for the organic church -  a house-based, non-hierarchical, open-participatory fellowship of Christians - as the true New Testament church model.  (I actually want to go to an organic church once to see what it's like now.)

This book was compelling because it uses historical analysis to trace the roots of things like the modern pastor, sermon, conception of church, division of clergy/laity.  I like history so it was just interesting to read from that point of view.  However the critique at the Resurgence seems to give good historical evidence for the opposing side so I am at some sort of judgmental standstill (with a preference towards what I know and love of course).

I'd recommend the first two books over this one but if it sounds interesting at all, I'd suggest reading it with the critique at the Resurgence.


Happy reading!